First Grocery Pick-Up

I actually love grocery shopping, so I've never used any of the shopping/pick-up services offered by my local stores before. But I see the Instacart shoppers rolling through the store with their carts full of organized bags, and new reserved parking spots for pick-up, so I know a lot of people use them.

I placed my first grocery order on Sunday, thinking I would probably be able to pick up on Monday. A number of things were understandably out of stock, but I was able to check almost everything off my list. However, when completing my purchase, the earliest pick-up time was Tuesday afternoon - almost 48 hours after my order! So I've been eagerly awaiting fresh produce for the last few days.

Today, about an hour before my scheduled pick-up, someone called me from the store to let me know my order might not be available at the scheduled time, and they would call to let me know when it was ready. Oh no! How much later are we talking - hours? Days? ...No, maybe like 30 minutes 😂 And, she warned me, although they just got a shipment in, some items may not be available. I understand, though I hadn't even ordered any of the hard-hit stuff like canned goods or cleaning supplies. I told her I was mostly hoping to get the fresh and produce items, and she said that shouldn't be a problem.

Nobody ever called me back, so I finally called in (didn't want to bother them since they were busy) and was told my order was ready. I drove over to the store, surprised to see as many people out as I did (especially considering this was mid-day on a Tuesday). Per the order pick-up protocol, I called to tell them I was there and which numbered parking spot I was in, then popped the trunk and waited. About 15 minutes later, I got a call back to see if I was still out there, waiting for my order. Yes, I was.

Shortly after that, a very nice young guy came out and put the bags in my trunk, which I thought would be the end of the transaction. But then he proceeded to stand outside my (barely cracked open) window and tell me about all the things that were out of stock - like half my order - and hand me a paper receipt, and give me another thing that I had to sign and return. So much for "contactless!"

I wiped everything down when I got home and tried to see what recipes I could salvage with the few items I got. I think after this experience, I'll take my chances going to the store myself right when it opens for best availability, clean my cart, and use self check-out. Will try tomorrow morning...

Side note, I also saw a surprising number of people wearing masks while out! One woman had hers pulled down under her chin - pointless. I saw another guy fully masked up, driving a car by himself 🤷‍♀️ If you're not even going to wear them right, you don't deserve to have them at all when there's doctors and patients who actually need these supplies...